1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of agents that inhibit human ADAM-10 (also known as human Kuzbanian) and their use in the treatment of cancer, arthritis, and diseases related to angiogenesis, such as renal diseases, heart diseases such as heart failure, atherosclerosis, and stroke, inflammation, ulcer, infertility, scleroderma, endometriosis, mesothelioma, and diabetes.
2. Summary of the Related Art
Cell-cell interactions play an important role in regulating cell fate decisions and pattern formation during the development of multicellular organisms. One of the evolutionarily conserved pathways that plays a central role in local cell interactions is mediated by the transmembrane receptors encoded by the Notch (N) gene of Drosophila, the lin-12 and glp-1 genes of C. elegans, and their vertebrate homologs (reviewed in Artavanis-Tsakonas, S., et al. (1995) Notch Signaling. Science 268, 225-232), collectively hereinafter referred to as NOTCH receptors. Several lines of evidence suggest that the proteolytic processing of NOTCH receptors is important for their function. For example, in addition to the full length proteins, antibodies against the intracellular domains of NOTCH receptors have detected C-terminal fragments of 100-120 kd; see, e.g., Fehon, R. G., et al. (1990). Cell 61, 523-534; Crittenden, S. L., et al. (1994). Development 120, 2901-2911; Aster, J., et al. (1994) Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 59, 125-136; Zagouras, P., et al. (1995). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 92, 6414-6418; and Kopan, R., et al. (1996). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 93, 1683-1688. However, the mechanism(s) of NOTCH activation have been hitherto largely unknown.
During neurogenesis, a single neural precursor is singled out from a group of equivalent cells through a lateral inhibition process in which the emerging neural precursor cell prevents its neighbors from taking on the same fate (reviewed in Simpson, P. (1990). Development 109, 509-519). Genetic studies in Drosophila have implicated a group of “neurogenic genes” including N in lateral inhibition. Loss-of-function mutations in any of the neurogenic genes result in hypertrophy of neural cells at the expense of epidermis (reviewed in Campos-Ortega, J. A. (1993) In: The Development of Drosophila melanogaster M. Bate and A. Martinez-Arias, eds. pp. 1091-1129. Cold Spring Harbor Press.).
Rooke, J., Pan, D. J., Xu, T. and Rubin, G. M. (1996). Science 273, 1227-1231, discloses neurogenic gene family, kuzbanian (kuz). Members of the KUZ family of proteins are shown to belong to the recently defined ADAM family of transmembrane proteins, members of which contain both a disintegrin and metalloprotease domain (reviewed in Wolfsberg, T. G. et al., (1995). J. Cell Biol. 131, 275-278, see also Blobel, C. P., et al. (1992). Nature 356, 248-252, 1992; Yagami-Hiromasa, T., et al. (1995). Nature 377, 652-656; Black, R. A., et al. (1997). Nature 385, 729-733, 1997; and Moss, M. L., et al. (1997). Nature 385, 733-736; see also U.S. Pat. No. 5,922,546 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,935,792).
Genes of the ADAM family encode transmembrane proteins containing both metalloprotease and disintegrin domains (reviewed in Black and White, 1998 Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 10, 654-659; Wolfsberg and White, 1996 Dev. Biol. 180, 389-401), and are involved in diverse biological processes in mammals such as fertilization (Cho et al., 1998 Science 281, 1857-1859), myoblast fusion (Yagami-Hiromasa et al., 1995 Nature 377, 652-656) and ectodomain shedding (Moss et al., 1997 Nature 385, 733-736; Black et al., 1997 Nature 385, 729-733; Peschon et al., 1998 Science 282, 1281-1284). The Drosophila kuzbanian (kuz) gene represents the first ADAM family member identified in invertebrates (Rooke et al., 1996 Science 273, 1227-1231). Previous genetic studies showed that kuz is required for lateral inhibition and axonal outgrowth during Drosophila neural development (Rooke et al., 1996; Fambrough et al., 1996 PNAS. USA 93, 13233-13238; Pan and Rubin, 1997 Cell 90, 271-280; Sotillos et al., 1997 Development 124, 4769-4779). Specifically, during the lateral inhibition process, kuz acts upstream of Notch (Pan and Rubin, 1997; Sotillos et al., 1997), which encodes the transmembrane receptor for the lateral inhibition signal encoded by the Delta gene. More recently, a homolog of kuz was identified in C. elegans (SUP-17) that modulates the activity of a C. elegans homolog of Notch in a similar manner (Wen et al., 1997 Development 124, 4759-4767).
Vertebrate homologs of kuz have been isolated in Xenopus, bovine, mouse, rat and human. The bovine homolog of KUZ (also called MADM or ADAM 10) was initially isolated serendipitously based on its in vitro proteolytic activity on myelin basic protein, a cytoplasmic protein that is unlikely the physiological substrate for the bovine KUZ protease (Howard et al., 1996 Biochem. J. 317, 45-50). Expression of a dominant negative form of the murine kuz homolog (mkuz) in Xenopus leads to the generation of extra neurons, suggesting an evolutionarily conserved role for mkuz in regulating Notch signaling in vertebrate neurogenesis (Pan and Rubin, 1997). U.S. patent application. No. 09/697,854, to Pan et al., filed Oct. 27, 2000, discloses that mkuz mutant mice die around embryonic day (E) 9.5, with severe defects in the nervous system, the paraxial mesoderm and the yolk sac vasculature. In the nervous system, mkuz mutant embryos show ectopic neuronal differentiation. In the paraxial mesoderm, mkuz mutant embryos show delayed and uncoordinated segmentation of the somites. These phenotypes are similar to those of mice lacking Notch-1 or components of the Notch pathway such as RBP-Jk (Conlon et al, 1995, Development 121, 1533-1545; Oka et al., 1995), indicating a conserved role for mkuz in modulating Notch signaling in mouse development. Furthermore, no visible defect was detected in Notch processing in the kuz knockout animals. In addition to the neurogenesis and somitogenesis defect, mkuz mutant mice also show severe defects in the yolk sac vasculature, with an enlarged and disordered capillary plexus and the absence of large vitelline vessels. Since such phenotype has not been observed in mice lacking Notch-1 or RBP-Jk (Swiatek et al., 1994 Genes Dev 15, 707-719; Conlon et al., 1995; Oka et al., 1995 Development 121, 3291-3301), Pan et al. determined that this phenotype reveals a novel function of mkuz that is distinct from its role in modulating Notch signaling, specifically, that kuz plays an essential role for an ADAM family disintegrin metalloprotease in mammalian angiogenesis.
In view of the important role of KUZ (ADAM-10) in biological processes and disease states, inhibitors of this protein are desirable.
All patents, applications, and publications recited herein are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.